After back-to-back phenomenally pitched games, Sunday’s was clear it would be different from the start.
And in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the game tied 4-4, Matt Kemp came to the plate and homered to give the L.A. Dodgers the go-ahead run, while Yasiel Puig added an insurance run and the Rockies lost 6-4.
Fittingly, in a game where pitching was not at a premium, the Rockies’ best bullpen arm Adam Ottavino, gave up two runs in that eighth inning during the team’s demise.
In the bottom of the first, the Dodgers struck first; Chad Bettis started out hitting a batter and walking the next and Matt Kemp’s groundout turned into a run as Chris Taylor scored.
The Rockies tied it up in the second inning, though, in the same way. After Carlos Gonzalez singled and Trevor Story doubled, Ian Desmond grounded out to first, which was enough for Gonzalez to run across the plate.
The next inning, Colorado scored the same way again, on a ground out by Nolan Arenado, scoring D.J LeMahieu. Then, Story smashed a ground-rule double down the right field line to score Gerardo Parra to push Colorado’s lead to 3-1. In the bottom half of that third inning, though, Kemp — the Rockie killer — smashed a double to score Max Muncy and bring the game to 3-2.
That third inning also was the end of the day for Bettis, the Rockies starter, who had a “hot spot” on his middle finger and was pulled.
In the fifth inning, Arenado smashed a solo homer, his 21st of the season. Unfortunately, the Rockies had a mere two baserunners since that home run, as they faded away late.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers did anything but fade away. They, in fact, got stronger as the game went on. Kemp singled to score Muncy in the bottom of the fifth, and then Cody Bellinger’s ground out resulted in Justin Turner scoring. That left the game tied at 5-5 after five.
Finally, Kemp — who went 3-4 on the day with four RBI — hit his homer and Puig was able to score from second on an infield single when LeMahieu made a great diving play but couldn’t get up to make a throw.
Colorado started the game hot, and led for the entire first half of the day, but faded like an L.A. sunset, quietly and ugly, seen through the smog.
This was a huge opportunity for the Rockies to do three things with a win. They could have swept the Dodgers, pushed their winning streak to four games and also pulled their record back up to .500. Instead, all that momentum which had been built this weekend, is now gone.
Tomorrow, the Rockies (41-43) host the San Francisco Giants (44-40) at 6:40 p.m. MT at Coors Field.
